The robot has developed to this day, and the mainframe structure has been implemented. Its development is not an overnight thing but has been for more than half a century. Let's talk about the composition and development of the robot.
1. The composition of the robot
The robot includes three major parts and six subsystems, of which the three major parts refer to the mechanical part, the sensing part, and the control part, and the six subsystems refer to the driving system, the mechanical structure system, the feeling system, the robot-environment interaction system, the human-computer interaction system, and The control system is shown in the figure below.
The functions of the six subsystems are described below:
(1) Drive system. The drive system is a transmission device arranged for each joint, that is, each degree of freedom of movement, in order to make the robot run. The drive system can be either hydraulic transmission, pneumatic transmission, electric transmission, or a comprehensive system combining them, or direct drive or indirect drive through mechanical transmission mechanisms such as synchronous belts, chains, gear trains, harmonic gears, etc..
(2) Mechanical structure system. The mechanical structure system of the industrial robot includes three parts: the base, the arm, and the end operator. Each part has several degrees of freedom, forming a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical system. If the base has a walking mechanism, it constitutes a walking robot; if the base does not have a walking and waist rotation mechanism, it constitutes a single robot arm. The arm generally includes three parts: the upper arm, the lower arm, and the wrist. The end operator is an important part directly mounted on the wrist. It can be a two-fingered or multi-fingered claw, or it can be a painting gun, welding tool, and other working tools.
(3) Feel the system. The sensing system includes an internal sensor module and an external sensor module, and its function is to obtain valuable information on the internal and external environmental states. Due to the use of intelligent sensors, the mobility, adaptability, and intelligence level of robots can be improved. Although the human sensory system is extremely sensitive to the information of the external world, for some special information, the sensor is more accurate than the human sensory system.
(4) Robot environment interaction system. The role of the robot-environment interaction system is to realize the mutual connection and coordination between the industrial robot and the equipment in the external environment. Industrial robots and external equipment can be integrated into a functional unit, such as processing and manufacturing units, welding units, assembly units, etc. Of course, multiple robots, multiple machine tools or equipment, multiple parts storage devices, etc. can also be integrated into a functional unit to perform complex tasks.
(5) Human-computer interaction system. The role of the human-computer interaction system is to realize the operator's participation in the robot control and contact with the robot. For example, standard terminals for computers, command consoles, information display panels, danger signal alarms, etc. The system can be divided into two categories, namely, the command-given device and the information display device.
(6) Control system. The function of the control system is to control the robot's actuator to complete the specified motion and function according to the robot's operation instruction program and the feedback signal from the sensor. If the industrial robot has no information feedback function, it is an open-loop control system; if it has an information feedback function, it is a closed-loop control system. According to the control principle, the control system can be divided into program control system, adaptive control system, and artificial intelligence control system. According to the form of control movement, the control system can be divided into point control and trajectory control.
2. The development of robots
By the way, I would like to talk about the development status of robots around the world. In 1954, Davor in the United States first proposed the concept of industrial robots and applied for a patent. The key of the patent is to use servo technology to control the joints of the robot, to teach the robot movements with the help of human hands, and the robot has the function of recording and reproducing movements. This is the so-called teaching and reproduction robot, and most of the existing robots adopt this control method. Known as the "Father of Industrial Robots", Joseph F. Engel Berger founded the world's first robotics company, Unimation, in 1958, and participated in the design of the first Unimate robot. The robot is a five-axis hydraulically driven robot for die-casting operations, and the control of the arm is done by a dedicated computer. It uses discrete numerical control elements and is equipped with a magnetic drum to store information and can memorize 180 work steps. During this period, another American company, AMF, also began to develop Versatran industrial robots. It is mainly used for material transportation between machines and is driven by hydraulics. The arm of the robot can revolve around the base, lift up and down in the vertical direction, and can also expand and contract in the radial direction. In general, Unimate and Versatran can be considered the world's first industrial robots. The control methods of these two industrial robots are roughly similar to CNC machine tools, but their shape and characteristics are very different, mainly composed of human-like hands and arms.
All in all, robots are an important symbol of modern technological progress. It is a concrete manifestation of a country's comprehensive national strength.